SCH Number 2022100563

Project Info

Title

2045 Fountain Valley General Plan Update

Description

The 2045 General Plan is the City’s policy and implementation framework that guides the long-term growth and improvement of the Fountain Valley community through interrelated components of city governance: » A Vision that provides a sense of the purpose and mission for city governance and sets the tone for the other components of the plan. The Vision’s central theme is embracing change while preserving community values and quality of life. » A General Plan that addresses state law and guides City decisions through long-term goals and policies to achieve Fountain Valley’s Vision. In addition to the topics required by state law, the plan will address the optional topics of economic development, community design, air quality, and governance. » An Implementation Plan that identifies the actions needed to carry out the Plan’s policies. This includes initiatives by the City, as well as decisions on public and private development projects and City activity programs. The proposed project updates the General Plan to guide the City’s development and conservation for the next 20+ years through 2045. The proposed project is a comprehensive update of the General Plan to comply with state housing mandates; conform with new state laws related to community health, environmental justice, climate adaption, resiliency, and mobility; and bring long-term growth and fiscal projections into alignment with current economic conditions and state mandates. The General Plan will address the following topics: » Land use: establishes how land is developed, used, and arranged to ensure compatibility and add value to the community in terms of function, design, and fiscal return. » Economic development and fiscal sustainability: an expansion of an existing topic to grow revenues and reduce costs to offset the sunset of Measure HH, and to position the City to maximize the economic value of its development options in the context of future market conditions. » Community design: an expansion of an existing topic to more directly address neighborhood compatibility and development design guidelines. » Governance: a way to formally memorialize how the City makes decisions and governs, recognizing a stronger connection between long-term policies, short-term decisions, and the budget. » Housing: updates needed to obtain state certification. » Circulation: coordinates the circulation system with future land use patterns and buildout to satisfy local and subregional mobility needs, access and connectivity among the various neighborhoods, and compliance with Orange County’s Congestion Management Program. » Parks and open space: establishes broad direction for open space and park and recreation programs, emphasizing the vital role parks and recreation play in economic development, land use, housing, community health, infrastructure, and transportation goals. » Healthy communities strategies: augmenting recent “health in all policies” approaches with a focus on partnerships and programs that are more effective and impactful. » Conservation: addresses how resources are managed comprehensively using systems that are environmentally and economically sustainable and meet growth demand in Fountain Valley. » Public safety: addresses how the City protects life, property, and commerce from impacts associated with human-made and natural hazards, disasters, and other threats to public safety; also identifies ways the City can establish strategies to adapt to increased hazard risks and strategies to become more resilient. » Air quality: establishes appropriate policies to achieve progress toward air quality goals as identified by the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Air Quality Management Plan. » Noise: identifies measures to maintain a noise environment that is compatible for the various neighborhoods and land uses in terms of noise exposure for near-term and long-term growth and traffic activity. Environmental justice is only a required topic for jurisdictions that contain disadvantaged communities. According to CalEnviroScreen (CES version 4.0), all census tracts in Fountain Valley have a CES composite score below the 75th percentile—the threshold above which the City and California Environmental Protection Agency deem a census tract to be a disadvantaged community. The land use designations in the City of Fountain Valley will largely remain as designated under the current General Plan, with the addition of Very High Density Residential (VHDR), Mixed Use 1 (MU1), and Mixed Use 2 (MU2) designations. The City will also amend its Development Code, Zoning Map, and associated specific plans to implement the updated General Plan.

4 documents in project